Pictures
Winfield Scott
"Old Fuss and Feathers"
(June 13, 1786 - May 29, 1866)
Photograph is Courtesy of the Library of Congress
Winfield Scott was born on June 13, 1786, near Petersburg,
Virginia. Scott was a large and imposing figure and stood six feet, five inches tall and weighed 230 pounds. His career
was extraordinarily long, some fifty years, and he was the associate of every President from Thomas Jefferson to Abraham Lincoln.
He was referred to as "Fuss and Feathers" because of his punctiliousness in dress and decorum. His reputation for patriotism
and generosity generally won him the trust and loyalty of his troops. Over the course of his fifty-year career, he commanded
forces in the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the Black Hawk War, the Second Seminole War and, briefly, the American Civil War (conceiving the Union strategy known as the Anaconda Plan that would be used to defeat the Confederacy). Scott’s
battlefield successes, however, did not translate into political successes. Two of his subordinates, Zachary Taylor and Franklin Pierce, rode their Mexican War reputations into the White House. (Even
so, Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, also a war hero, promoted Scott to brevet Lieutenant General in 1857.) Scott retired
to West Point, New York, and died there on May 29, 1866.
Excerpt from the Autobiography of General Scott
Civilization of the Cherokees. New York, 1864. Vol. 1, p. 318.
"The Cherokees were an interesting people - the greater number Christians, an [and] many as civilized
as their neighbors of the white race. Between the two colors intermarriages had been frequent. They occupied a contiguous
territory - healthy mountains, valleys, and plains lying in North Carolina,
Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee. Most of their leading men had received good educations, and possessed much ability. Some were
quite wealthy in cultivated farms, good houses, cattle of every kind, and negro slaves. Gardens and orchards were seen
everywhere and the women graceful, with, in many cases, added beauty. Of course the mixed races are here particularly alluded
to. The mountaineers were still wild men, but little on this side of their primordial condition.
The North Carolinians and the Tennesseans
were kindly disposed towards their red brethren. The Alabamians were much
less so. The great difficulty was with the Georgians (more than Half the army),
between whom and the Cherokees there had been feuds and wars for many generations.
The reciprocal hatred of these two races was probably never surpassed. Almost every Georgian,
on leaving home, as well as after their arrival at New Echota, - the centre [center] of the most populous district of the Indian territory - vowed never to return without having
killed at least one Indian. This ferocious language was the more remarkable as the great body of these citizens - perhaps,
seven in ten - were professors of religion. The Methodists, Baptist, and other ministers of the Gospel of Mercy, had been
extensively abroad among them; but the hereditary animosity alluded to caused the Georgians
to forget, or, at least, to deny that a Cherokee was a human being."
Bibliography:
Beringer, Richard E. Winfield Scott. American National Biography, vol 19. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1999; Elliott, Charles W. Winfield Scott, the Soldier and the Man.
New York: The Macmillan Company, 1937. Reprint. New York: Arno Press, 1979; Beringer,
Richard E. Winfield Scott. American National Biography, vol 19. New York:
Oxford University
Press, 1999; Detailed Description General
Winfield Scott Collection. February 24, 1844; National Archives and Records Administration; Library of Congress;
Museum of the Cherokee Indian.
Recommended Reading:
Winfield Scott
Biographical Sketch
Winfield Scott served and fought
against the British in the War of 1812; Scott was captured during the Battle of Queenston Heights in 1812, but was
released in a prisoner exchange; in July 1814, Scott commanded the First Brigade of the American army in the Niagara campaign,
decisively winning the Battle of Chippewa. He was wounded during the bloody Battle of Lundy's Lane; Scott earned the reputation
of a peacemaker by helping to ease the Nullification Crisis in 1832 and settling border disputes with
Canada; he engaged in the Black Hawk War and the Second Seminole War; in 1838 Scott supervised the removal of the Cherokee
(The Trail of Tears) from Georgia and other southern states to reservations west of the Mississippi River;
he authored the army’s drill manual; President John Tyler elevated him to commander of all U.S. forces in 1841 (aka
commanding general and general-in-chief); Scott, an outspoken Whig, opposed President James K. Polk’s policies
toward Mexico, a move that cost him the primary field command in the ensuing Mexican American War of 1846-1848; when General
Zachary Taylor’s campaign bogged down at Monterrey, Scott proposed a bold plan to land an army at Vera Cruz and to march
overland to capture Mexico City. Polk grudgingly agreed, and Scott’s campaign succeeded brilliantly and won the Mexican
American War; at the advanced age of 75, Scott, as general-in-chief of the United States Army, was the architect of Union
war planning in 1861; Scott authored the “Anaconda Plan” in 1861, by which the North would strangle the South
with a blockade and capture the Mississippi River; he resigned from his post in late 1862; upon Scott's retirement, George
B. McClellan assumed command as general-in-chief of the United States Army; Scott retired
to West Point, New York, and died there on May 29, 1866.
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